...Thus,our observations suggest the strong interaction of Alp with DNA, which may raise serious questions about the random uses of Alprazolam.

...In this study in vitro interaction between DNA and BDZs group of drugs, Alprazolam is evaluated. Several lines of evidence suggest that, this group of drugs is toxic (8, 9) and considered as a non-DNA interactive carcinogen (7). However, no efforts havebeen made to determine its DNA binding abilities in vitro. So, we undertook this project to evaluate the DNA binding ability of Alprazolam. Here, we have provided evidences to show that Alp binds strongly with DNA in vitro.

...The reports about the toxic effects of BDZs are controversial. No evidence of carcinogenic potential wasobserved for the BDZs during two years of bioassay studies in rats at doses up to 30mg/kg/day (210 times the maximum recommended daily human dose of 10 mg/70kg/day) and in mice at doses up to 10 mg/kg/day (70 times the maximum recommended daily human dose) (4). But on the contrary, it was also reported that some of this group of drugs were teratogenic and also carcinogenic in experimental animals. Oxazepam, a member of the BDZs group of drugs has been shown to be a hepatocarcinogen (5) and induces DNA damage in human myeloid leukemia cells (6) through the production of oxidative stresses. Thus, oxazepam was considered as a non-DNA intercalative mutagen (7). On the other hand, an experiment carried out with 32 BDZs drugs, showed absence of liver DNA damage after oral administration of extremely higher doses of BDZs in rats (8). But no efforts were made to find their interaction with the DNA in vitro.

...Consequently, after entering into cells BDZs can interact with different molecules and modulate their functions of which PBR mediated apoptosis and cell cycle arrest have been already reported (15,16)

...We showed that, Alp interacts with chromosomal and plasmid DNA with an affinity greater than that of ethidium bromide (EtBr). From circular dichroic (CD) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), it was also shown that Alp induced conformational changes in DNA. Thus, our present study for the first time demonstrated the in vitro interaction of DNA with Alp, the drug that is generally considered so far as less harmful.